Even through the depths of the “great recession” many companies were successfully conducting business and making a profit.

Safe bet that through the down times you were hearing many salespeople complain that companies simply were not spending beyond necessities. But have you been barraged now with the sales team telling you that they are going gangbusters since things seem to have turned the corner? Probably not. There is some truth to the old adage “all ships rise with the tide,” but the economy is never the primary factor for sales success or failure.

Salespeople have different tolerance for rejection. Nobody really likes it, but successful performers expect to be told there are minimal to no budgets for their products in bad economic times. They also refuse to accept that at face value.

I worked with an associate who did his best work in economic down times. He would sympathetically listen to clients complain about lack of funding and then turn the tables. “I’m guessing the stress on your business” he would point out, “means that you’re going to keep doing what you’re doing and after weathering the storm you’ll look for adding revenue streams like the one our service opens up?” A prospect struggling with revenue was usually open to discussing the possibilities.

Whatever the response to this associate’s questions, he would ask another one diving deeper into the client’s business probing for areas of weakness or opportunities for growth. If and when he uncovered an issue, he would expand on it and find ways to build even better outcome scenarios for the client with the new revenue. It was a work of art requiring significant insight and creativity.

Most companies may indeed raise the bar for project approval resulting in fewer overall projects. But the projects do in fact continue. His approach allowed him to get his projects to the top of the list. It took perseverance, diplomacy, intelligence and courage to pursue increasingly fewer opportunities. But the bad economy was actually ideally placing his buyers to be receptive to his service.

Another former associate who also performed well in difficult economic times took a different approach. He worked his plan by “looking under every rock.”

Most salespeople have large and small opportunities. Especially in down times when there may be fewer “rocks” there is a natural tendency to focus on the bigger opportunities thinking they will push you over quota. Typically, the large opportunity sales cycle expands or may even be canceled or lost.

When so much time is invested in that one opportunity, losing that sale can be catastrophic. If the time spent on such opportunities becomes excessive, the smaller rocks go unattended or are never discovered. This associate was a master at organizing and efficiently closing the small deals. While he had more opportunities to juggle at once than he might have dealt with typically, his focus on smaller opportunities kept a steady flow of sales coming in to consistently meet sales goals.

These are just two examples of how salespeople can thrive in a bad economy.

Matt Neuberger is the president of Neuberger & Co., an authorized Sandler Training licensee in Pikesville. He can be reached at matthew@neubergerco.com.